are you surprised that the obama administration hasn't stepped up the reference to sort of shield him a little bit, beings he's for all intents and purposes the nominee for the defense secretary? >> the administration has done everything they can. chuck hagel is like a man, who was like susan rice, not nominated for anything. susan rice took a pelting for a job she was not officially nominated for. chuck hagel is someone who hasn't been nominated for secretary of defense but is someone who is rumored to be that person. i think we saw an indication of what the administration was doing to, in a way to protect hagel, and i'm thinking of specifically the criticisms of hagel and what he had said during the whole "don't ask, don't tell" fight and things that -- i'm sorry, about the nomination of jim hormel to be ambassador to luxembourg back in the '90s. he said the ambassador was openly aggressively homosexual. hagel took a pummelling for a few hours, few days, then miraculously, there was an apology from chuck hagel. there were phone calls from the white house to gay groups. >> seems to m